In a bid to avoid malpractices in various recruitment exams, the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) has decided to incorporate a fifth column in the OMR (Optical Marks Recognition) sheets.

“If the candidate does not answer a question, he has to mark the fifth column earmarked as not attended,” said H. Prasanna, Executive Director of KEA.

KEA is conducting various recruitment exams along with CET for the entrance to various professional courses. In every recruitment exam, each question used to have four options for candidates to answer. Following the allegations in the recently held Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) examinations that some OMR sheets were tampered with by the candidates, the KEA has decided to incorporate a fifth column in the sheets.

Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Prasanna said that recently during the recruitment exams for Village Accountant posts, he got a call from a person in Chitradurga. “The person who had called me was approached by middlemen asking him to leave the OMR blank and demanded ₹40 lakh, saying that it would be filled at KEA. Though there is no such provision at KEA, we have decided to introduce a fifth column to be careful and to retain trust. By introducing the fifth column in the OMR sheets, we are ensuring that there will be no room for malpractice or tampering of the OMR sheets in the recruitment exams,” he explained.

“There will be three bells in all the exams, and after the third bell, candidates will be asked to stop writing, and an extra five minutes will be given to circle/shade the fifth column. The fifth column is for candidates to shade the questions that they have not answered. It is the responsibility of the invigilator to ensure that students have circled the fifth column in case of unanswered questions. Even after instructions from the invigilator, if a candidate fails to shade the fifth column, then 1/4 of the mark for that question will be deducted,” he stated.

Further, Mr. Prasanna said that to maintain transparency in the recruitment exams, they have decided to upload the examination center-wise OMR sheets of the particular exam on the website soon after the scanning process is over. “As soon as the answer scripts reached KEA from the examination centres, we will scan the them immediately and upload them online,” he added.